Reading restitution in District Six: law, discourse and 'governmentality'

Abstract

This thesis carries out an interdisciplinary textual analysis of the legal documents (primarily contracts and court documents) used to negotiate and fix the terms of the statutory land restitution process in District Six, Cape Town, during the period from 1996 to 2012. Utilizing French philosopher Michel Foucault's theorisation of 'discourse' and 'governmentality', it traces the interweaving of restitution's legislative concepts with heterogeneous political and cultural discourses emanating from District Six's unique history. It is argued that the hybridised configurations of discourse generated by this encounter serve as new instruments of power in the space of this restitution project, lending themselves to a range unintended and sometimes paradoxical material outcomes.